Anthropological Interactions
by crazygirlne
Summary: Written for a tumblr prompt: Rose walks in on the Doctor doing something embarrassing.


Author's Note: Written to fill a Tumblr prompt from Re-sile: Rose walks in on the Doctor doing something embarrassing.

If you've read anything else of mine, you won't be particularly shocked that it's a bit fluffy ;)

* * *

"Doctor?" called Rose, tentatively. However, there was no response; the galley was as empty as the console room and library had been.

Rose had woken from her nap feeling refreshed, more herself than she had since Cassandra had invaded her mind. She had immediately gone in search of the Doctor, but she wasn't finding him in any of the places he usually ended up on his own.

She walked down the corridor to his door. She listened a moment and raised her hand to knock, but she hesitated, dropping her hand and staring at the door. This "new, new Doctor" hadn't been around for all that long, and she wasn't yet sure whether he'd be okay with her interrupting him if he was in his room. However, this version of him did seem to have considerably fewer physical boundaries than he'd had when he still wore leather and blue eyes.

Suddenly, she heard a shout from within the room.

"No!" yelled the Doctor's voice, distressed, and Rose flung open the door before she had time to reconsider.

Inside, the Doctor was resting comfortably prone on his bed, his head towards the foot of it and towards Rose, who was standing in the doorway, concerned.

The Doctor looked up from the paperback novel that was resting under his hands on the bed.

"Rose!" he said, startled. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

He started to get up from the bed, moving the book so it was hidden behind him.

"No," said Rose. "I just... I heard you shout, and I thought maybe something was wrong, so..."

"Oh," responded the Doctor, rubbing his neck and looking away for a moment. He stopped and looked back at Rose, arching an eyebrow. "I didn't shout loud enough for you to hear me unless you were right outside my room."

Rose blushed slightly.

"Yeah, well," she started, "I couldn't find you anywhere else. Maybe I was concerned, yeah? Cause you're always either in the console room or the library or gettin' something to eat, and, well, I didn't expect you to be hiding in your room to read, now did I?" Rose narrowed her eyes at the Doctor. "Why, exactly, were you hiding in your room to read? You usually like that one chair in the library."

"Maybe I just felt like stretching out," he said, shoving hands into his trouser pockets. "Sometimes change is good, right?"

"Right," replied Rose, slowly, not sure whether the subject had changed on her, too. "So what were you reading, then?"

"Nothing interesting," the Doctor said, speaking a little more quickly than usual. "Just an, er, anthropological study regarding the interaction between opposing members of a primitive species."

"What sort of interaction?" asked Rose, taking a step toward him. "And what species?"

"Well, strictly speaking," he said, "it's interaction as it relates to the proliferation of the human species, in the most basic explanation of the relationships."

Rose frowned as she worked through his speedy babble.

"Doctor," she ventured, "are you reading a romance?"

"What?" he squeaked. "No. Well, yes. Technically. But it's purely to gather data from a scientific..." He trailed off as Rose came closer, stopping when she was just in front of him and fixing him with a stare. "Rose, I know I'm pretty, but I'm much too manly to be reading a romance for enjoyment. I mean, not that outward aesthetics are any reflection of personality or that there's any implied effect if I were, theoretically, to be reading..." He trailed off again as Rose reached behind him and snatched the book off the bed, twirling away from him, maneuvering to keep the book out of his reach as he tried to grab it back.

"This is the book you teased me about when I bought it a couple months ago," she exclaimed. "I haven't even got to read it yet, didn't know where it went."

When Rose paused in her surprise, the Doctor managed to grab the book back. She reached for it again, jumping to try to retrieve the book he now held high above his head. She placed a hand on his shoulder for leverage and jumped as high as she could, grazing the book as he moved it out of her grasp. She started laughing and heard the Doctor make a happy sound of his own as she let her hand slide down from his shoulder to rest on his chest, leaning her face there, too, as she got her laughter under control. After a moment, she pulled back, having realized how much of her body had actually pressed against his in her mirth.

"If you're just using it for scientific data," Rose said, looking up at him, hands on her hips, "then you can read one that I'm already done with, yeah?"

"I suppose," he said, letting the hand with the book drop to one side. He darted a glance at it. "Though I have already started this one. It seems like a shame to leave it unfinished. I mean, then there are all these questions unanswered in my mind."

"Like what?" asked Rose, grinning as he looked longingly down at the book before returning his attention to her.

"Like does the dashing hero ever realize the plucky heroine already loves him in return?" said the Doctor, passion creeping into his voice as he continued. "Will she realize that what she overheard was a lie meant to dissuade the villain of the story? Will they end up together despite the objections of her father and his sister? I can't possibly stop the book without knowing the answers to these vital questions."

He sat down on his bed, holding the book in his lap and looking up at her with big, brown eyes. She sighed and shook her head.

"No, I suppose not," she said, sitting next to him. "Today would be a perfect day for me to read it, though, and it's the only new one I've got." She looked at him, evaluating. "Alright, then," she said, turning so she was sitting against the pillows at the headboard and patting the space next to her, "how's this? You get me up to speed and then read the rest out loud."

The Doctor beamed at her and got comfortable, quickly finding his place in the book. As he filled her in on what had happened so far in the novel, Rose scooted a little closer to him.

"And then the heroine, Jane," he was explaining, "had gone to declare her feelings, only she overheard him saying he could never love her! Of course, he was speaking to the man who had sworn to target anyone for whom he hero had feelings, so he was only trying to protect her. That, of course, is when I may have gotten a little caught up and shouted. Just a little."

He started reading the book aloud, and Rose cautiously rested her head on his shoulder, making herself more comfortable when he smiled in response. They stayed that way for a couple of hours until Rose's stomach started noisily demanding food, but a tradition of sorts had been started. Every time Rose acquired a new romance novel, she and the Doctor read it together, taking turns reading aloud. Shortly after they were nearly separated during the encounter at Canary Wharf, the Doctor excitedly brought home a romance novel that he'd picked out on his own, and he was so proud of his purchase that Rose found herself unwilling to resist pressing her lips to his, matching his enthusiasm. That night, there were no books in the Doctor's bed.


End file.
